Editing Ralph Abernathy (section)

==Political career and later activism==
Abernathy addressed the [[United Nations]] in 1971; he spoke about world peace.<ref name="legacy">{{cite web | url=http://www.legacy.com/news/legends-and-legacies/ralph-abernathy-kings-right-hand-man/572/ | title=Ralph Abernathy: King's Right Hand Man | publisher=Legacy.com | date=March 11, 2011 | access-date=March 13, 2015 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402113219/http://www.legacy.com/news/legends-and-legacies/ralph-abernathy-kings-right-hand-man/572/ | archive-date=April 2, 2015 | df=mdy-all }}</ref> He was also a member of the board of directors of the [[Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/1965-annual-board-meeting-sclc |title=1965 Annual Board Meeting for SCLC |publisher=The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change |date=April 2, 1965 |website=www.thekingcenter.org |language=en |access-date=February 17, 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180218090223/http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/1965-annual-board-meeting-sclc |archive-date=February 18, 2018 }}</ref> In 1977, he ran unsuccessfully for Georgia's 5th Congressional District seat, losing to Congressman [[Wyche Fowler]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/02/15/a-free-for-all-race-for-youngs-seat/88044587-029a-42fe-9489-a51293dca1e3/ |title=A Free-for-All Race for Young's Seat |last=Brown |first=Warren |date=February 15, 1977 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=February 17, 2018 |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180217202954/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/02/15/a-free-for-all-race-for-youngs-seat/88044587-029a-42fe-9489-a51293dca1e3/ |archive-date=February 17, 2018 }}</ref> He founded the nonprofit organization Foundation for Economic Enterprises Development (FEED), which offered managerial and technical training, creating jobs, income, business and trade opportunities for underemployed and unemployed workers for underprivileged blacks.<ref name="SE"/>

In 1979, Abernathy endorsed Senator [[Edward M. Kennedy]]'s candidacy for the Presidency of the United States.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/10/17/abernathy-endorses-reagan-raps-carter-empty-promises/5f1075d6-a858-4bf0-b513-5f285d71dc99/ |title=Abernathy Endorses Reagan, Raps Carter 'Empty Promises' |last=Cannon |first=Lou |date=October 17, 1980 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=February 17, 2018 |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180217202948/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/10/17/abernathy-endorses-reagan-raps-carter-empty-promises/5f1075d6-a858-4bf0-b513-5f285d71dc99/ |archive-date=February 17, 2018 }}</ref> However, he shocked critics a few weeks before the 1980 November election, when he endorsed the front-runner, [[Ronald Reagan]], over the struggling presidential campaign of [[Jimmy Carter]].<ref name="carter">{{cite news|last=Herzog|first=James P.|date=October 17, 1980|title=Abernathy Tells Blacks: Reconsider Carter Vote|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=P0McAAAAIBAJ&pg=6939%2C491786|newspaper=[[Pittsburgh Press|The Pittsburgh Press]]|access-date=January 16, 2015}}</ref> Abernathy stated of his endorsement: "The Republican Party has too long ignored us and the Democratic Party has taken us for granted and so since all of my colleagues and the latter in various places across the country were supporting the Democratic Party, I felt that I should support Ronald Reagan."<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/9718-1/Rev-Ralph-David-Abernathy |title=And the Walls Came Tumbling Down |date=October 29, 1989 |type=Video |access-date=February 17, 2018 |website=www.booknotes.org |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180217202811/http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/9718-1/Rev-Ralph-David-Abernathy |archive-date=February 17, 2018 }}</ref> Abernathy withdrew his endorsement of Reagan in 1984, citing his disappointment with the Reagan Administration on civil rights and other areas.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?9718-1/and-walls-tumbling-down&start=2655&noClip= |title=Walls Tumbling, Oct 23 1989 |website=C-SPAN.org |language=en-US |access-date=February 17, 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180316231903/https://www.c-span.org/video/?9718-1%2Fand-walls-tumbling-down&start=2655&noClip= |archive-date=March 16, 2018 }}</ref>

In 1982, Abernathy testified—along with his executive associate, James Peterson of Berkeley, California—before the Congressional Hearings calling for the Extension of the Voting Rights Act.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VSXfAQAAQBAJ&q=%2522Abernathy%2522+testified+Extension+of+the+Voting+Rights+Act&pg=PA291 |title=The Voting Rights Act of 1965: Race, Voting, and Redistricting |last=Darling |first=Marsha |date=October 31, 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135730178 |pages=1395 |language=en}}</ref>
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage= | video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?9718-1/walls-came-tumbling ''Booknotes'' interview with Abernathy on ''And the Walls Came Tumbling Down'', October 29, 1989], [[C-SPAN]]}}

Documents declassified in 2017 show that Abernathy was on the [[National Security Agency]] watchlist because of [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] leadership's hatred of the [[civil rights movement]].<ref>{{cite news |title=National Security Agency Tracking of U.S. Citizens – "Questionable Practices" from 1960s & 1970s |url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cybervault-intelligence-nuclear-vault/2017-09-25/national-security-agency-tracking-us |access-date=January 3, 2020 |publisher=National Security Archive |date=September 25, 2017}}</ref>

===''And the Walls Came Tumbling Down''===
In late 1989, [[HarperCollins]] published Abernathy's autobiography, ''[[And the Walls Came Tumbling Down]]''.<ref name=EB/> It was his final published accounting of his close partnership with King and their work in the civil rights movement.<ref name="people"/> In it he revealed King's marital infidelity, stating that King had sexual relations with two women on the night of April 3, 1968 (after his "[[I've Been to the Mountaintop]]" speech earlier that day).<ref name="people">{{cite news | url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20121528,00.html | title=A Bitter Battle Erupts Over the Last Hours of Martin Luther King | work=People Magazine | date=October 30, 1989 | access-date=March 21, 2015 | author1=Kunen, James | author2=Sanderson, Jane | author3=Nugent, Tom | author4=Velez, Elizabeth | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320114153/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20121528,00.html | archive-date=March 20, 2015 | df=mdy-all }}</ref> The book's revelations became the source of much controversy, as did Abernathy.<ref name="people"/><ref name="philly"/> [[Jesse Jackson]] and other civil rights activists made a statement in October 1989—after the book's release—that the book was "slander" and that "brain surgery" must have altered Abernathy's perception.<ref name="people"/><ref name="philly">{{cite news|url=http://articles.philly.com/1989-12-05/news/26157645_1_abernathy-white-marble-crypt-judas|title=Ralph Abernathy's Judgment Day With His Autobiography, He Hoped To Secure His Place In Civil-rights History. But Two Pages Of The Book Proved To Be His Undoing&nbsp;— And Earned Him The Label Of Judas.|last=Capuzzo|first=Mike|date=December 5, 1989|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|access-date=March 21, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402152014/http://articles.philly.com/1989-12-05/news/26157645_1_abernathy-white-marble-crypt-judas|archive-date=April 2, 2015}}</ref>

===Unification Church===
In the 1980s, the [[Unification Church]] hired Abernathy as a [[spokesperson]] to protest the news media's use of the term "[[Moonie]]s", which they compared with the word "[[nigger]]".<ref name="gorenfeld">{{Cite book |last=Gorenfeld |first=John |title=Bad Moon Rising |publisher=PoliPointPress |year=2008 |page=[https://archive.org/details/badmoonrisinghow00gore/page/96 96] |isbn=978-0-9794822-3-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/badmoonrisinghow00gore/page/96 }}</ref> Abernathy also served as vice president of the Unification Church–affiliated group [[American Freedom Coalition]],<ref name="leigh">{{Cite news |last=Leigh |first=Andrew |date=October 15, 1989 |title=Inside Moon's Washington—The private side of public relations improving the image, looking for clout |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |page=B1}}</ref><ref name="nix">{{cite news |last=Nix |first=Shann |date=August 10, 1989 |title=Church seeks new image |work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] |page=B3}}</ref> and served on two Unification Church [[boards of directors]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=Unification Church funnels millions to U.S. conservatives |work=[[The Dallas Morning News]] |date=December 20, 1987 |page=4A |publisher=The Dallas Morning News Company}}</ref>